The present invention relates to an obstacle detecting control device of a vehicle that controls an operational device of the vehicle according to detection results of an obstacle in front of the traveling vehicle by an obstacle detecting device.
Conventionally, an obstacle detecting control device of a vehicle, which includes an obstacle detecting device to detect an obstacle in front of the vehicle and an operation control device to control an operational device of the vehicle according to an obstacle state detected by the obstacle detecting device, is known.
According to the obstacle detecting control device, for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-36098, a radar is attached to a vehicle body and when obstacles in front of the traveling vehicle is detected by the radar, a warning lamp is turned on and a warning sound is made. Thereby, a vehicle passenger can be warned of a risk of hitting against obstacles in front of the traveling vehicle.
However, the above-described obstacle detecting control device has a problem in that the radar would detect obstacles mistakenly. Namely, the radar is attached to the vehicle body in such a manner that a radar axis is directed toward a specified direction, and the radar detects obstacles with this radar axis as a standard in locating the detected obstacles. Accordingly, if the radar axis moved improperly for some reasons and there happened any change of the radar axis of the radar, the radar would detect obstacles mistakenly, for example, in such a manner that any obstacles, such as other traveling vehicles or guide rails, that are located obliquely forward are detected as obstacles that were located right before (in front of) the vehicle. As a result, it would cause an inappropriate situation where the warning lamp is turned on or the warning sound is made unnecessarily, thereby providing the passenger with uncomfortable feelings.